AprilAire E080 Pro 80-Pint Whole-House Dehumidifier, Energy Star Certified, Commercial-Grade for Basement, Crawlspace or Whole House up to 4,400 sq. ft.

I bought this after my 6 year old Honeywell TruDry 90 developed a refrigerant leak and spewed oil into the condensate tray and drain. Shame on Honeywell. They should know better and be able to build something that lasts longer than 6 years for that kind of money. My house's A/C system lasted 20 years! Since the reviews were even worse than I expected for a new similar replacement Honeywell unit, I did a hard pass and started looking at Aprilaire. The Aprilaire E080 I chose is a nicely built unit and kudos for being a USA manufacturer. They took the time to really insulate it with tons of Styrofoam panels inside with this particular model. Apparently, the E080 is their only really well insulated unit at this moment out of their product lineup. They also had a beast of a support shipping bracket for the compressor strapped to the backside, which saved my unit from damage since the people who load boxes onto the trucks at Amazon's warehouses can't seem to understand what those large "THIS END UP" warnings printed on the boxes mean. Mine was sitting in the truck on it's backside, compressor on the bottom. I kept the box, support bracket and straps (even though they say to throw them out) if I ever have to ship this unit back for repairs/replacement in the future. A note to buyers. DO NOT THROW OUT those Styrofoam inserts that are placed inside the plastic duct collars for this unit. They are for noise reduction, not prevention of shipping damage, so keep them inside the collars when installing. I also moved the control panel to the front to keep it from getting dusty in my basement and thus scratching the clear display panel when being cleaned. Once the unit had sat for a couple of days, I put it up on my leveling pallet that keeps it off the basement floor, swapped the rear collar to the top of my unit and attached it to my overhead duct to distribute the exhaust away from the unit and out into the room and hooked it up to my drain. It fired right up when I turned it on. Soon it starting dumping water into the drain like crazy. This unit has an interesting method of operation. It doesn't work like my old Honeywell unit did, although I suspect that if I had an external humidity controller like my Honeywell unit did, it would probably be similar. But since this unit has the controller/humidistat mounted on the front, what it does is first turn on the fan for 3 minutes to sample the air humidity. After that 3 minutes, if it detects that the humidity in the room is higher than the set point on the control panel, it then turns on the compressor to dehumidify. Even though my basement was already at 48% (according to my probably inaccurate little hygrometer), this was a test and it ran until it hit 3% below my set point of 53% and turned off. Since the room was already dry enough, it did not need to dehumidify again. What this unit does is sample the air every hour, so you'll hear the fan turn on for 3 minutes during those times. If the humidity is below the set point, the fan then turns off and the compressor stays off until the next cycle. I'm hoping this run procedure works when my basement starts getting really humid in the spring and fall. Winter, it's generally not needed and only sometimes in the summer. If once an hour doesn't work out, I'll purchase the add-on external Aprilaire controller, but I suspect it will work great as currently set up. Now if it lasts longer than 6 years, I'll be a happy camper. Given that my local HVAC company does not know much about dehumidifiers in my area, I probably know more about them than they do at this point. They sold me the original Honeywell unit and weren't even sure how to set it up. THEY had to read the manual just to figure it out. They certainly couldn't fix it when the coils finally sprung a leak a few months ago. It's now deemed non-repairable and has to be discarded or recycled. I've also repaired it on my own at least once, when the defrost thermostat failed, which was a known issue at the time. Research saved me a big call charge, even under warranty, and getting a repair person who probably knew nothing about the unit to even diagnose it in the first place.

Using this to handle humidity in a 3300 sq./ft. home. 50% of the house was built in 1918 and the other in 2006. We recently installed hardwood flooring on the entire first floor. This unit was needed to maintain a very specific relative humidity so the floor doesn’t swell and contract with moisture variations that were not manageable with the furnace and AC alone. This unit sit in our basement and drains directly to a floor drain. This can be installing directly into the duct work but I did not use that option. Within 24 hours of installing, the relative humidity was pulled down to our target 52-55%. Runs quiet and efficiently. My new floor will be trouble free from now on.

I got this unit (after performing a lot of research) because I was so sick of buying a dehumidifier from a big box store, or online, only to have it die within 1-2 years. This seems to be a common problem. My last unit (midea) died after 45 days. When I researched the issue it seems most dehumidifiers sold today, under different brand names, are actually made by one or two factories. So, changing 'brands' does not help as it is the same unit under the covers. I am using it as a 'stand alone' unit in my unfished basement (not tied into HVAC ductwork). initial reactions for this unit: made in USA. well packaged. heavy duty metal construction. good documentation. got it up and running in a couple of minutes. Relatively quiet. In fact, quieter than any of the big box units I have previously purchased. Looks like it would be relatively easy to take apart and service. digital display and controls. unit fan turns off once the desired humidity level is reached - unlike most big box units where the fan runs constantly even if the dehumidifier compressor is not running. I will update this review if anything changes for the worse. warranty notes: As stated above, I am using this as a 'stand alone' dehumidifier (NOT as a unit tied into an HVAC system/ductwork). I contacted AprilAire about warranty coverage for my situation as they mention 'professional installation' on their website. . They said that such a 'stand alone' use setup by a customer (and NOT as a unit tied into an HVAC system/ductwork by the customer) IS covered under warranty.

Heavy and difficult to move without another person. Easy and straightforward to unbox and setup. My purchase was only the dehumidifier so I had to purchase PVC tubing and plumbers tape for drainage. Pulls the humidity down from 48% to 43% in about thirty minutes. Kicks on once an hour with this setup which isn’t bad. Unfortunately without ducting this unit will produce 55dB or more of sound. I had expected the noise to be less noticeable but I can hear the high-pitched hum from the crawlspace throughout the house. Sent a video to Aprilaire who confirmed this is normal operation. Build quality appears excellent, even if one of the logos was slightly diagonal. Time will tell if this unit holds up or gets louder. Hoping to find a way to reduce the noise. Edit: One year later and this unit has faded into the background. I never notice it. It continues to work as good as the day I bought it. I did have it shut down randomly once, but a power cycle restored operation. Aprilaire confirmed it shouldn’t occur again, but they know it happens on these models.

Does the job well. Not super difficult to install and has kept our humidity way down from what it was.

Took relative humidity from a constant ~75% down to 50% in about a day after installation. Now cycles of/off only as needed. No more condensation on cold pipes/surfaces and clammy feeling basement air is gone. And I will now be able to finally permanently remediate a recurring mold issue. Unit is well built and looks made to last. Easy to install and level. Actually quieter than a room dehumidifier that it replaced. Worth the money. Application: 1200 sq ft partially finished basement in a high water table area. No water seepage issues, but basement has historically been damp even with room style dehumidifiers. Unit could be ducted into HVAC system, buy I chose to run it stand alone in basement. Has also passively reduced humidity in the rest of the house via HVAC cold air returns in the basement.

I ordered and installed one on these units in my house to complement my Aprilaire 700M humidifier. In the Chicago suburbs we get bone dry winters and hot humid summers. The undersized AC unit game only goes so far here and does not work for the cool humid late spring and early fall since it is too cool for an AC call. The only option is to run the AC until your house is frozen. Between AC calls in the summer, the humidity creeps back in while the temperature holds and the AC sits in the background waiting for the temperature to increase to turn on. Then you have to lower your thermostat just to dehumidify your house. I have had this unit for 2 days and already I notice a difference. The first floor is nearly as dry as the basement (which I have been using an oversized stand alone unit since I moved in) while the upstairs is comfortable, which is up from unbearable. Running a dehumidifier in the basement does help a lot, but it has been a losing battle on the first and especially the second floor. I selected the E080 because it was the most quiet and power efficient unit while having different ducting options as well as a filter access door on both sides. The E070 was more than enough for my 1364 sq ft townhome, but I have extremely limited space to work with in the basement and the filter access on both sides came handy. I had to duct this unit to the Aprilaire recommended return to return vs the more appropriate return to supply because the pressure differences while the HVAC fan is running causes air not to flow through the unit. I am using a Google Nest to control the unit via a relay. I am using a cam rotary switch to select between the humidifier and dehumidifier relays and reprogramming the thermostat for the device selected since the Nest supports only one device at a time. I am running this unit as a stand alone with the HVAC fan active in the Nest setup. I originally ran it return to supply with the HVAC fan not active but AC calls kicked on the fan regardless causing air not to flow through the dehumidifier, which was why I was forced to change it to return to return. It was a pretty difficult and tricky install that required a lot of planning ahead of time, along with a ducting change, but it was all well worth it in the end. The unit is extremely quite. The AC is running less and the house is very comfortable with the thermostat set higher. The temperature difference between the first and second floor is now half. I have never lived in a house this comfortable during this time of the year. I am looking forward to seeing how this unit performs when the summer gets hot and muggy. This is seriously like adding a dehumidifier in every room. Depending how this unit works out in the long run, I might just look to replacing my 50 pint standing unit with the E070 for my basement (there is no ducting in the basement so a separate unit is needed).

My previous review was positive. Most recent update, going on 2 years in: This thing might as well be a brick. MOST people are buying these for crawlspaces and basements. Well the average person in the northern half of the US, will have crawlspace temps and basement temps much less as warm as it is outside let alone inside. These units advertise working down to a certain temperature, in this case for this product it's 50F. Well Im here to assure you that is a lie. Anything less than 60 degrees and this unit WILL shut off. And worse, it doesnt have a feature to sample the air occasionally and start back up if it senses warmer air temps. So your system just sits there until you reset it. Anyone up for crawling under their crawlspace to see if this POS is working or not? No, me either. So go ahead and spend more money on the WIRED remote,...yes wired. Go ahead and fish a wire up through your floor in your wall and install the pad on the wall, then you can do everything you need to there right? Oh but what if you arent home, or this is a second property/camp/airbnb...whatever, well you are screwed. I guess you can call a neighbor and beg them to go there and reset it? Honestly, just get a cheap $150 stand up model, put it in a kitchen sink and let it drain and run non stop. They work just as good. What a waste of time and money this unit was. I was happy to buy something from a US company. Now less than a year later the thing keeps throwing an E6 code. This is for a second home/rental. I thought it was due to work they were doing in the area causing quick power disruptions which also happened during a couple of storms last year. I reset the power and it works. Life happens and I couldn't check on things for a month and find out it hadn't been running for about that long. Brand new wood floors cupping. When I cycle the power it works for awhile then not. So I had to buy a ring camera to monitor it and a ring power plug to turn it off and on again. Then I log into Amazon and see my support window closed three months after I bought it. Wtf You are better off buying a cheap Chinese knock off, replace that in three years than buying one of these for triple the price and having to buy something else a year later.